[clintonb]

What’s the relevance of knowing a previous employee count? How does this information “complete” the story?

[matsemann]

Because if they hired for instance 30 000 people the last two years, 11 000 brings them back a year or so. If however 11 000 is the headcount they've grown the last 10 years, it's a much more dramatic sign.

[33955985]

If your friend told you they lost $10,000 in the stock market today, would you feel bad for them? What if they then told you that they're up $500,000 over the past year? How about then?

[ironick09]

Believe it or not, like the stock market, employee headcount doesn’t only go up, it goes down too.